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Tuesday, May 14, 2013
New home!!!
I am sorry to have left ye all here waiting for so long but I have been settling into my new home over on paulaskitchentable.com and I would love if ye would join me over there! Lots has been happening so please come on over and join in!! xxxx
Monday, February 25, 2013
Ariel House Afternoon Tea
Delicious macarons displayed in my mother's 45 year old china! |
Two years have passed since I started blogging and what an exciting two years it has been. New foods sampled, interesting people met and lots of fun experiences have all paved my way along the blogging path. I enjoy the styling and the photography side of the blog so much and I am so delighted to be able to help others now with some great pictures for their websites. It has been such a learning curve for me and everyday I discover something different that I cannot wait to try, long may it continue! I have been overwhelmed with the level of support from all my twitter and facebook friends over the last few weeks since I launched my facebook business page which you can find here if you would like a look....
Yesterday I spent the day in the elegant surroundings of Ariel House in Ballsbridge. Such a gorgeous spot and despite being within a stones throw of the Aviva stadium it is surprisingly secluded. I had the pleasure of photographing some of the beautiful baked goods that are served as part of an afternoon tea, what a delightful way to while away an afternoon. I am looking forward to going back as a guest and relaxing with a chilled glass of champagne and some delicious sweet treats!
I hope you don't mind me sharing some of my photos with you but you have all been such a fantastic support to me I want to keep you all posted on my goings on!
Homemade shortbread |
Lemon curd cake |
Melting moments, caramel brownies, coffee & walnut bake |
Delicious cupcakes |
Mini berry tarts |
or on facebook here
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Honey, lemon & chilli halloumi!
I am prone to a little bit of exaggeration and embellishment of a story but when I tell you that you have to try this and you will think it is one of the best things you have ever eaten please believe me!!! I made this last Saturday as part of a dinner party spread and it went down with such success that I made a second round of it after dessert, I kid you not. The lovely Wise Mona had this recipe http://www.wisewords.ie/index.php/2013/02/honey-sweet-syrupy-sticky/ on her blog recently and I haven't stopped thinking about it since I spotted it. This is my version of something similar!
There will be lots of sizzling and hissing so stand clear. Fry for approximately ten minutes or until all the liquid is gone and you are left with delicious caramelised slices of halloumi. Serve on a bed of rocket and wait for your round of applause. Simply divine!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
The Pruntys!
So my new little photography venture is off to a promising start!! I have three bookings already which has THRILLED me!!! I took these pictures late last year of one of my favourite families, love the way the kids personalities shine through. Don't worry I am not abandoning the food blogging I just wanted to let you all know how things were going and to say a huge thank you for all the well wishes and the lovely messages, much appreciated!!! xxx
The lovely Uma! |
Model family! |
Love the light in this one! |
Sibling love! |
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
A tad excited!!!!
When my food blogging obsession and prop buying sprees started I had no idea where it was going to lead. When I bought my first 'proper' camera last summer I just fell in love with it. My kids think they are professional models at this stage I take their photo so often! My love of food has turned into a love of photography and I am enjoying learning lots of little tips to make my photos more interesting. I have just set up a new facebook business page and I would love if you had a moment to click and like!
Thanks so much everyone!!
Monday, February 11, 2013
Lime & chili miso broth!
Fast day number 11 and I am still in love with the fast diet. I love the simplicity of it and the fact that it doesn't encroach on my social life. I was actually really looking forward to today's fast and to trying out this dish. It is spicy so feel free to leave out the added chili if you please!
You will need;
- 2.5ml rapeseed oil (20 calories)
- 2 garlic cloves (10 calories)
- Tesco stir fry medley, includes chili, spring onions, long stem broccoli, baby corn and mange tout (70 calories)
- Lime, zest & juice (20 calories)
- Sachet of miso soup (18 calories)
- 1tsp crushed chili flakes (5 calories)
Heat the rapeseed oil in a non stick frying pan before adding sliced chilli, two cloves of crushed garlic and lime zest.
Once these are sizzling add the rest of the vegetables and stir fry quickly to seal.
Add the sachet of miso soup, 200ml of boiling water, the juice of a lime and a teaspoon of chili flakes and stir before serving.
Hot, hot, hot but delicious!
Would love to hear how the rest of ye are doing on the intermittent fasting plan, drop me a line to let me know! xx
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Minestrone soup!
Fast day number ten and I am feeling good! This delicious soup is 353 calories for the entire pot! The key to this eating plan is to be very wise with your 500/600 calorie allowance and squeeze in as many nutrients as you can!
You will need;
- 100g raw onion, chopped (40 calories)
- 3 cloves of garlic, sliced (13 calories)
- 100g celery, sliced finely (14 calories)
- 100g carrots, cubed (41 calories)
- 400g tin of chopped tomatoes (72 calories)
- 100g kidney beans (65 calories)
- 100g green cabbage, shredded (24 calories)
- 25g pasta (84 calories)
- 1tsp dried basil, salt & pepper
Add a splash of water to a large saucepan and soften the onion, garlic, carrot and celery.
Once softened add the tin of chopped tomatoes and two tins of water, stir.
Add the kidney beans, pasta, shredded cabbage, basil, salt and pepper and allow to simmer for twenty five minutes or until the pasta has softened.
Ladle into warm bowls and dream of hunks of fresh bread to dip into it!
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Cancer patients have gotten blood transfusions for the sole purpose of meeting eligibility criteria for clinical trials, raising ethical and patient safety concerns, a Canadian group warned.
Three instances in advanced cancer patients over a one year period were reported by Jeannie L. Callum, MD, and colleagues at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto.
"We caution against this practice, given the risks of transfusion," they wrote in a letter to the editor that appeared in the Oct. 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
All three cases they reported involved patients trying to get into trials of novel chemotherapy agents.
The first patient had an albumin level of 22 g/L but needed to be at 30 g/L to get into the trial and thus took a transfusion of 25% albumin.
The second patient fell just under the required platelet count of 50,000 per cubic millimeter with a pretransfusion count of 48,000.
The physician of a third patient ordered transfusion of a unit of red cells to raise her hemoglobin level from 8.3 g/dL to the required 9.0 g/dL for trial enrollment.
These cases might have been handled otherwise, Callum's group noted.
Clinicians should try to correct the underlying laboratory value through other treatments first, such as treating anemia, they urged. Explore all possible other options, including looking for other trials at other institutions for patients who don't meet eligibility criteria, they added.
"Patient safety must trump all decisions for such patients," the group concluded. "There should be few situations, if any, in which a patient receives a transfusion solely for the purpose of temporarily altering a laboratory value to gain admittance to a clinical trial."
Callum and colleagues also offered suggestions for clinical trial design to help prevent such ethical dilemmas.
Researchers and institutional review boards need to carefully consider eligibility criteria in trial design, being alert to laboratory values that could be manipulated by transfusions, they recommended.
"If criteria are listed, there must be a medical reason for excluding patients on the basis of these values," they wrote in the letter, "if clinicians believe that a specific criterion is arbitrary, with no medical justification, they may be tempted to provide transfusions that will help patients meet that criterion."
Trials also need to make clear in the eligibility criteria whether it may be met with the use of transfusions, and publication of the trial results needs to make clear to readers what proportion of patients received transfusion to qualify for enrollment, they added.
Primary Source
New England Journal of Medicine
Source Reference: Callum JL, et al "Transfusion for protocol eligibility" N Engl J Med 2010; 363: 1681-1682.


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In what might be the most significant pressure put on Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to change his team's name, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the team's trademarks on the basis that it is "disparaging to Native Americans."
In its 2-1 ruling issued on Wednesday, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, an independent tribunal within the USPTO, wrote that it was charged with determining only whether the trademark was offensive to the people it referenced, not the entire U.S. population. Five Native Americans, representing four tribes, brought the case against the league in 2006.
Although the Redskins name and past logos are involved in the decision, the trademarks that were canceled do not include the current Redskins logo.
"Petitioners have found a preponderance of evidence that a substantial amount of Native Americans found the term Redskins to be disparaging when used in connection with professional football," the ruling said. "While this may reveal differing opinions with the community, it does not negate the opinions of those who find it disparaging."
The ruling does not force the NFL or Snyder to change the name, but trademarks registered between 1967 and 1990 will no longer be protected under federal law if the NFL and the Redskins lose an appeal to the U.S. District Court.
Bob Raskopf, the trademark attorney for the Redskins, said the team will appeal Wednesday's ruling and is confident the court will successfully overturn it. He noted that the team's trademark registrations will remain valid while the case is appealed.
"We are confident we will prevail once again, and that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's divided ruling will be overturned on appeal. This case is no different than an earlier case, where the Board cancelled the Redskins' trademark registrations, and where a federal district court disagreed and reversed the Board," Raskopf said in a statement.
In 1999, a panel ruled to cancel the trademarks after a battle with Native American groups. The decision was later overturned on a technicality after the court decided that the plaintiffs were too old and should have filed their complaint soon after the Redskins registered their nickname in 1967.
"The evidence in the current claim is virtually identical to the evidence a federal judge decided was insufficient more than ten years ago. We expect the same ultimate outcome here," Raskopf said in his statement.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told ESPN.com that she expects Wednesday's ruling to be upheld on appeal.
"This puts a big dent in their business model of trying to gain revenue from a disparaging term of slur," she said. "I find it very unlikely that someone is going to overrule the patent office on this. This is a huge decision by a federal agency."
Cantwell, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, wrote a letter signed by 49 Democratic senators last month that encouraged a name change. She said that if the Redskins and the league refuse to change the name, there are many options available for the Senate, including perhaps ridding the league of its tax-exempt status.
Reid also applauded the decision.
"Daniel Snyder may be the last person in the world to realize this, but it's just a matter of time until he is forced to do the right thing and change the name," said Reid, who has said previously he will not attend Redskins home games until the team changes its name.
The new case was launched in 2006 by a younger group of Native Americans and was heard by the board in March 2013.
The group argued that the Redskins should lose their federal trademark protection based on a law that prohibits registered names that are disparaging, scandalous, contemptuous or disreputable.
"The U.S. Patent Office has now restated the obvious truth that Native Americans, civil rights leaders, athletes, religious groups, state legislative bodies, Members of Congress and the president have all echoed: taxpayer resources cannot be used to help private companies profit off the promotion of dictionary defined racial slurs," said Oneida Indian Nation representative Ray Halbritter and National Congress of American Indians executive director Jackie Pata in a joint statement.
"If the most basic sense of morality, decency and civility has not yet convinced the Washington team and the NFL to stop using this hateful slur, then hopefully today's patent ruling will, if only because it imperils the ability of the team's billionaire owner to keep profiting off the denigration and dehumanization of Native Americans.
Without protection, any fan can produce and sell Washington Redskins gear without having to pay the league or the team for royalties and wouldn't be in violation of any law for doing so. NFL teams split merchandise royalties 31 ways -- the Dallas Cowboys have their own deal -- so league owners could see losing the trademark rights as a major negative.
"This is not a death blow, but it's a good jab," said Frank Vuono, who formerly headed up the NFL's retail operations before starting his own firm, 16W Sports Marketing.
Vuono said that not only could merchandise be compromised, but if the Redskins someday lose their rights to the trademarks, non-sponsors could try to use the marks to associate with the team without affiliation. That, Vuono said, would devalue the proposition of being an official sponsor.
The Redskins are an integral part of league sales. From April 1, 2012, to March 2013, the league said more jerseys of Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III were sold than of any other player in a single year in NFL history.
"In a business like professional football, there is a huge amount of revenue in merchandising," Christine Farley, a law professor at American University who specializes in trademarks, told ABC News. "If pro football loses the ability to monopolize that market, that may convince them to change their name."
If the Redskins lose the rights to their trademarks, the question will be whether state and common laws would allow them to retain their exclusivity of use.
"The law is really unclear on this," said Sonia Katyal, the Joseph M. McLaughlin Professor of Law at Fordham who specializes in intellectual property. "We haven't really had something like this where you have a team and so many other interested parties involved, so we're treading new ground."
Suzan Shown Harjo, one of the plaintiffs who testified at last year's hearing, said she was "thrilled and delighted'' with the decision.
Redskins owner Snyder, asked by reporters Wednesday for his reaction to the trademark decision, simply waved to reporters and did not comment.
Redskins wide receiver Santana Moss called the decision "sad."
"It's sad, but like I said before, it's something that I can't control, so I'm going to leave it alone," Moss told reporters. "I hope the best for it because I feel like, as a Redskin, I don't think that we wore this name trying to bring any harm to anybody. A lot of us out here as players didn't know of the history or nothing like that, and we've been kind of privileged to get a little bit of insight on some of the history and just with that you still don't know enough."
Griffin said he and his teammates would try to keep their focus on the field.
"Our jobs as players is to focus on what we can on this field day in and day out and let the league take care of that stuff. And when it's the right time, then we can voice whatever it is that we know about the situation," he said.
Officials the NFL could not immediately be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Miami University in Ohio, which also once used the Redskins nickname, used Wednesday's ruling as an opportunity to tweet to the NFL team.
Hey @Redskins, if you need help finding a new name just let us know. #RedHawks
- Miami Athletics (@MiamiRedHawks) June 18, 2014
ESPN.com Redskins reporter John Keim and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Harvard's primate research center, which has been investigated for animal welfare violations in the deaths of four monkeys, will be largely shut down by 2015, Harvard Medical School said Tuesday. The university cited a tough economic climate for research funding and a shift in long-term strategies.
The announcement stunned people inside and outside the institution. Harvard had invested significant resources in the New England Primate Research Center in Southborough to correct care and oversight problems that resulted in the monkey deaths between June 2010 and February 2012.
US Department of Agriculture inspectors found numerous violations of animal welfare rules after the deaths, an embarrassment that caused consternation across the university. But medical school leaders said the decision to close the 51-year-old facility, where about 200 people work, was unrelated to its problems.
"It's very, very disturbing, disappointing, disheartening, shocking," said Nancy Haigwood, director of the Oregon National Primate Research Center, who was informed by the Harvard center's director, Dr. Paul Johnson. "I think it's going to be very, very difficult to imagine that the investigators impacted by this decision will be able to keep up their momentum."
Harvard Medical School administrators and government officials said they will find ways for scientists with active federal grants to continue their work. But the pace of research is likely to be slowed by the need to strike up new collaborations, look for jobs, or spend time setting up laboratories.
David Knipe, a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School who has used monkeys in his AIDS vaccine research, said the center had built a strong team of researchers with expertise on a nonhuman primate version of the virus that causes AIDS. Knipesaid some scientists have already left.
"For us in the virology community, it's a big loss," Knipe said of the closing, "and it's going to continue because we're going to lose that community, that group of colleagues."
The decision was announced to a packed room at the Southborough facility. Kim Van Savage, who works in human resources at the center, said there was a wide range of emotions, including tears.
"I think people did feel that they'd really turned a corner," Van Savage said. "They've been through a lot of change; they've been through a lot of scrutiny. But a lot of work has been done at the center . . . so I think at this point, it took everybody by surprise."
Medical school leaders said they were working on a transition plan to help the 20 faculty, 32 postdoctoral researchers and graduate students, and 150 staff members find new positions while continuing their jobs to support the animals and research as the center moves to close over the next year or two.
They will also need to relocate close to 2,000 monkeys, perhaps to some of the seven other national primate research centers. None of the animals will be euthanized, medical school officials said.
It is uncertain how many jobs will be found for staff members and where the animals will end up, given that many research centers and universities face the same economic pressures that led Harvard to make its decision.
Administrators said in an interview Monday that the school's leadership decided not to reapply for a five-year federal grant that provides the base funding, a decision made in consultation with Drew Faust, Harvard's president.
"The decision that we made was a strategic long-term decision and not based in any way on the problems we had," said Jeffrey Flier, dean of the medical school dean.
"The school would have had to make considerable investments," he said. "Those are investments that would not have been able to go in other directions. And when we looked at everything, including the more difficult external funding environment that we all face," this was the right decision.
This year, the primate center projects it will receive $27 million in US funding, but universities are bracing for reductions in federal support because of recently enacted spending cuts. The medical school estimates that over the next five years, the primate center would demand an investment of $20 million to $25 million from the school.
Dr. William Chin, executive dean for research, said the decision also focused on "how the center fits into the school's basic priorities and overall goals."
A Harvard Medical School animal facility with 42 primates in the Longwood Medical Area will continue to operate.
Jay Kaplan, director of the center for comparative medicine research at the Wake Forest School of Medicine and one of the job candidates during the primate center's search for a director last year, said the expenses of running the facility are significant, including utility bills and the cost of updating primate housing.
He noted that the distance between the facility and the main medical campus in Boston kept the two entities from being as closely knit as they could have been.
The primate center "didn't have the name Harvard in it, and it was run for many years as a rather insular facility," Kaplan said. "So the question you have to ask is, is Harvard really looking to more clearly consolidate their investment and activities and not be worried about this satellite facility 30 miles away?"
James Anderson — a deputy director at the National Institutes of Health, which provides the major funding for the primate center — said Harvard notified the agency of its plans about a week ago.
"This is Harvard's decision," Anderson said in an interview. "We did not expect it."
Animal rights activists hailed the closure.
"I think it is a sign that things are moving in the right direction," said Kathleen Conlee, vice president for animal research issues at the Humane Society of the United States. "We've seen primate research in the US continue to go up over the years."
Deborah Kochevar, dean of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, was surprised. She said Harvard seemed committed to fixing the problems and to the future when she and a team of specialists reported on its operations last summer.
"One of the points that the panel that I served on made strongly is that we believed that as one of the oldest primate research centers in the US, as an affiliate of Harvard, that the NEPRC was really looked up to as a model," Kochevar said. "I think I'm safe in saying the unanimous consensus of our panel was that this was a very important resource for science, as well as for Harvard."
Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @carolynyjohnson.


text:
I'm attempting to replace a datasource in an outline map frame using ArcPy. The rest of the script seems to run OK, but after the script has run the datasource the datasource of that layer shows an error. A section of my code is below:
for df in arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd):
if df.name == 'Overview' or df.name == 'Keyplan':
df.scale = 500000
for lyr in arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd,"",df):
if lyr.datasetName == 'blah':
fullpath = os.path.join(fileDir,'ALTERED_' + fileName)
del mxd
I have had a look at http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/23803-issues-updating-data-source-via-arcpy.mapping?p=78411&viewfull=1 and used some of the tricks there, but I can't seem to make it work. Picture of layer datasource
and after
You'll see it has the correct layer name, but no actual layer. Any ideas what could be causing this. I thought at one point relative paths, but apparently they do not matter when using UNC paths, as I am.
This appears to work when I do it in ArcGIS itself using the "CURRENT" map, so pretty sure it's not a pathname error.
Any ideas?


text:
What is JEITA A measuring standard?
What is JEITA A measuring standard?
JEITA A stands for Japan Electronic Information Technology Association (Ver 1.0).
JEITA A measuring standard is based on the following conditions:
1. Screen saver: None.
Right-click on the desktop -> Personalize ->Screen saver -> None
2. Volume control: Mute.
Select the Volume icon on the taskbar -> Right-click -> Open volume Mixer -> Mute
3. Switch off the Wireless LAN switch.
4. Turn off the Windows automatic updates
5. Disable McAfee Security Center
6. Close the window side bar
7. Set long battery life wallpaper (VAIO Control Center)
8. Close welcome center
Common settings in Control Panel ->Power Options
Power Plan
1. Select VAIO Ultimate Battery
VAIO Ultimate Battery is hidden under Show additional plans by default.
VAIO Power Management
Go to Change advanced power settings ->Advanced settings
1. Sleep after ->Never
2. Hibernate after ->Never
3. Turn off display after ->Never
4. Low battery notification ->Off
5. Display Power Savings Techinology Policy ->Disabled
JEITA Measuring Method A:
Display Brightness
Change the brightness level to "10%".
Change value from Change plan settings ->Change advanced power settings ->display ->Display brightness
When the temperature is below approximately 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius) , the battery pack (VGP-BPS15 or VGP-BPL15) is designed to charge to approximately 80% capacity.


text:
2007 V6 Ford Mustang - Budget Boss
Jim Pauly Badly Wanted A Saleen Parnelli Jones Mustang, But Couldn't Afford One. So, With A Little Creative Thinking He Built His Own Version. Now Everybody Wants To Know About ... Jim's 'Boss' Mustang.
Every once in a while we spot a Modified Mustang with a combination of parts and pieces that look just right, and yet under the hood is a V6 engine. In the inaugural issue of this magazine we featured a then brand new 2005 Mustang V6 built up to look like a GT. That car got a lot of reader response. Jim Pauly did not build his '07 to resemble a GT, instead, the Floridian moved up a notch and went with the Boss theme. He chose the color Grabber Orange, which is an original Ford factory hue. With the black stripes and elevated black carbon fiber hood, another feature car comes to mind from a recent issue of this magazine - none other than Saleen's Parnelli Jones Mustang.
Pauly told us he really admired the PJ Stang, but simply couldn't afford to buy one. He could order a V6 with the same factory color for a starting-point for about 20 grand. He admits to having owned a plethora of Mustangs with "the big motors" and currently, his home in Florida has a 400-horse '83 GT residing in the garage. With the '07, Jim wanted to build a show car the whole family could and would enjoy. We found Jim, his wife and 15-year-old daughter enjoying Mustang Week in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina this past July.
They actually stayed the entire week for the festivities. Driving the V6 Boss up and down the main drag - Kings Road, in Myrtle Beach, Jim says, "It was incredible, the looks I was getting behind the wheel of this car."
DA' Boss Rules
We believe the 'Boss' has an assortment of parts and pieces to look hot - not overdone, but not sedate either. And it appears a lot of other people agree. On the weekend, at the big Mustang Week car show, Jim added, "Even the guys with the Shelbys - the GT-500s - were coming over and were impressed with the way the car looked."
The 'Boss' build started out with a set of ROH ZS wheels, Jim said. "I had the rims and tires sitting in my garage for the '83. I was going to do a 5-lug conversion on that car, but never got around to it." From our vantage point, the bigger wheels and wider B.F. Goodrich tires set off the Gen 5 Mustang, especially a V6 car. Although Jim wasn't after big time horsepower, he still did want a muscle look. He chose a Boss theme that started with a Boss stripe package from Graphics Express. The rear spoiler, sourced from a new Mustang GT, follows the black theme, as does the 3D Carbon fiber front air dam. Jim got the idea for the hood from a feature car in this magazine.
Said vehicle proved to be none other than the 'Evil GT,' a car this author photographed out in the desert near Las Vegas, Nevada and which appeared in our February, 2007 issue. I can attest that it made yours truly actually feel quite good in some respects, to think that a car I actually shot gave another Mustang builder a bit of inspiration for their own head turning ride. I suppose features are good for giving all of us ideas on what might look good on a built-up Mustang. The Boss stripes are definitely what stopped me in my tracks at the car show that day. As soon as I saw the car I just had to inquired who might be the owner. A man pointed at Jim. My first question was, could he pop the hood as I wanted to see more. Most people display their cars with the hoods open at shows like these.
"It's just a V6 that's pretty much stock," Jim said. Actually, the V6 looked pretty cool with a few mods. Jim admitted the engine was "pretty respectable," being factory rated at 210 horsepower - the same as the top dog Mustang GT boasted back in 1985.
"It's a little heavier than the Fox-bodies from the 1980s, but the car still gets up and goes for what I want to do. I just want a nice looking car to go to the car shows." A side benefit in these gas price conscious times is 29 highway miles per gallon on the highway from his home near Orlando, Florida north to Myrtle Beach.
Talk To The ECU
Jim hired Pro Dyno to chart the horsepower and perform their dyno tune. "When he put it on the dyno, the first pull was 176 and he got me 207 out of it. There's some loss from the drive- train, like 15 percent or so."
Of course, Jim was referring to the rear wheel horsepower. After the Pro Dyno tune, the V6 pumped out 207 at the tires for an extra 31 horsepower over stock. This tune went through a freer flowing GT muffler and a cold air intake from Western Motorsports - the same guys that stuffed an Aston Martin engine into a Mustang GT. On a V6, this trick intake includes a black radiator cover to direct the ram air, and requires relocating the factory overflow tank. To pump up the looks a little more, Jim picked a new overflow tank from Canton.
Inside, Jim said the factory shifter is "the first thing that needs to go." He compares the operation of the OEM 5-speed" to "like shifting a crow bar through a bucket of bricks." The Hurst short throw, fitted with a classic white cue ball handle, is much more to his liking.
Right now, Jim is far from done with his Boss. He has a list of "future mods," such as a set of dual exhausts. He plans to change the 7.5-inch rear end to an 8.8 with 3.73 gears and a Traction-Lok differential. Even with this future work remaining to be done, Jim is already having a blast with this 2007 V6 'Boss.' After all he went home with a Top 75 award from Mustang Week. Who says the big dollar show cars get all the attention?
Jim Pauly's 2005 V6 Mustang
Ford 4.0-liter SOHC V6
Engine Modifications
Canton aluminum radiator expansion tank
Hurst short throw shifter
GT-500 strut bar; MRT hood struts; Midwest
Auto Gear radiator cover extensions; UPR Strut half covers
3D Carbon Air dam; Image Performance Products ram air hood; Ford Racing hood pins
Shelby Signature floor mats; Chrome door sill inserts; Window tint by Mike at Sunshade Mobile Tinting; 'Eject' power outlet cover
Eibach Pro Kit springs
Wheels And Tires
ROH ZS wheels, with P235/45/17 front tires and P285/40/17 rear tires
Boss Mustang Tidbits
The Boss 302 was quite successful in the Trans Am series, almost winning the 1969 championship and clinching it in 1970.
The Boss 429 was built for NASCAR, but that engine was never raced there in a Mustang. BOSS 302 Mustangs did run in NASCAR's Grand American series, however.
Fewer than 9,000 Boss 302's were produced. The '70 BOSS 302 sold for $4,100.
The BOSS 429 was a low 14-second car. About 1,300 were produced and sold at $5,100 each.
The 1971 Boss 351 was arguably one of Ford's best small-block production engines. About 1,700 were produced, combining the 351 Cleveland block and the cylinder heads from the Boss 302.
Kar-Kraft, at the KK-Brighton assembly plant, in Brighton, MI, handled production of the BOSS 429 Mustangs for Ford. They also built two BOSS 429 Cougars in 1969.
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1953 Chevrolet Corvette, Built By Kindig-It Design, Wins Ridler Award at the 2024 Detroit Autorama


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The post Does doodling make you smarter? summarizes a study that apparently shows that people doodling had a much higher recall of information they were listening to than those who were not doodling, perhaps because " doodling aids cognitive performance by reducing daydreaming."
I try to talk as little as possible in front of the room, and certainly not for a lengthy period of time in one stretch. "Lecturing" for more than six or seven minutes is deadly, and I try to keep it under five (anything above that and I will repeatedly break for various activities like "think, pair, share").
When I am talking, though, I'm generally pretty insistent on students looking at me. I'll make exceptions for certain students with whom I've negotiated "deals" who tell me that they can pay attention to me while drawing/doodling. Of course, those deals are off if students need to see something on the overhead projector.
I've generally been pretty resistant to these kinds of deals because I've thought it was important for students to give me their undivided attention during the limited periods when I speak. This study has me wondering now if it's really that important. Of course, there's much more to learning than just "recall."
What do you think and do?


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This small tutorial will attempt to explain, in the easiest way possible, how to recover a password that has been lost, forgotten, or maliciously changed on a Cisco 2500 Series or 1600 Series Router.
Physical access to router
Connection from workstation to Router console interface (roll-over)
Terminal Emulation Software (Hyperterminal, the standard Microsoft release, does not work for this procedure. You must upgrade to Hyperterminal PE (free for personal use), which can be done via www.hilgraeve.com).
The first thing you will want to do, without reguard to the specific Series you are working with, will be to shut the router down, and then restart it.
This will cause the router, in effect, to 'reboot'. During the Boot Sequence, backup configuration information stored in the Routers NVRAM, is transferred to the Router's normal RAM for use. The transfer of this file from NVRAM to RAM may be interrupted by sending a break character sequence to the router while the file is loading. This may be done by pressing CTRL-BRK.
Next, you want to tell the Router to restart, and to disregaurd the NVRAM configuration for the next restart.
To do this on a 2500 Series Router, @ the > prompt, type [o/r 0x42] (don't type brackets). This changes the Routers configuration register. Now type [I] and press ENTER to reload the router. Type [N] @ the next prompt, and press ENTER to get the router> prompt. Now type the ENA (enable) command, and you should be in (priviledged mode).
To do this on a 1600 Series Router, @ the rommon 1> prompt type confreg and choose (Y) to change the configuration. Reply N to all questions now, except for the 'ignore system config info'(answer yes to that one). When asked again to change the configuration, reply [N] and then type [reset] to reload your Router. When prompted (after reload) to enter the original configuration, type [N] and press ENTER. Type the ENA (enable) command. You should now be in priviledged mode.
Now, you may run the [sh run] (show running-config) command, and view any passwords (that are not encrypted via the enable secret routine).
To change the passwords, use the [config t] command to enter the terminal configuration sub-mode(Global Config Mode). Now use the [enable secret *] command (replace * with your new password), press [CTRL-Z], and then check that your password has been replaced (via the [sh run] command).
If you happen to have a previous record of the configuration record, (not likely, however, if you don't even have the passwords), you may now change the configuration register back to it's setting then, using the [config t, config-register *] (replace * with register) command.
This information shows how easy it is to get into a Cisco router if physical access is aquired for any amount of time. It is very important, thus, that router's be very secure, both physical AND virtually.
Please feel free to respond to this with any other concerns, corrections, modifications, or additions that may be appropriate to the subject matter.


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Recipe of Saffron & Candied Orange Bread
courtesy recipe GODGIFU 'English Saffron Bread' published at all.recipe.com
(yield 8 candy-cane-shaped loaves, each 1-foot-long, one loaf good enough for 2 persons)
- 1 tsp saffron strands (not powder)
- 100 ml very hot water
- 210 ml whole milk (approx only, adjust the amount according to the wetness of the dough)
- 85 g butter
- 100 g sugar
- 11 g dry yeast
- 720 g flour (the one for bread)
- 2 Tbps candied orange, finely diced
- 2 eggs (but reserve half an egg for egg wash)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- some sugared cherry for decoration
- Soak the saffron strands in very hot water for 10 minutes. Discard the flower but reserve the liquid.
- Slightly warm the milk together with sugar and butter. Once the butter almost dissolves, remove the pot from the heat.
- In a very large mixing bowl, combine the flour, dry yeast, candied orange, salt and cinnamon. Stir in 1 1/2 eggs, saffron water and milk mixture (make sure all the liquid is lukewarm) until a dough is formed. Knead the dough until it appears smooth and elastic. The dough should feel slightly wet, but not sticky. Grease a large bowl, place the dough in, cover with a plastic wrap. Proof the dough overnigh in the lowest shelf of the fridge.
- Next day, take the dough out and knead a few minutes (to release the air and re-distribute the air bubbles).... In the following shaping process, please give many resting times in between, and cover the doughs with a wet towel while resting... First, line two large baking pans with baking paper. Divide the dough into 16 portions. Shape each into a 45 - 50 cm long strand. Take two strands, wet their both ends with little water and stick them together, then start twisting and shaping into a candy cane. Lay the cane on a baking pan, place a few sliced sugared cherry on top of the bread. Repeat to the rest of the dough. Cover the doughs with slight wet towel, let proof in a 25 - 27C room temperature for about 45 minutes or until the dough looks puffy.
- Pre-heat the oven to 175 - 180 C. Egg wash (dilute the half egg with 1 o 2 teaspoons water) the dough. Check the canes' shape, you might need to insert an aluminum "guard" (from folding up a small piece of aluminum foil) in the curve to keep a better shape. Bake one tray at a time for 15 minutes. Loosely cover with aluminum foil if the bread turns brown to quick.
- The bread goes very well with European-style ham or fresh cheese. For a sweet version, simply dust some powered sugar on.


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Every now and then, motherhood serves you up one of those days. The days that beat you to a pulp--before breakfast. The days that make you wonder if you should be saving for college....or reform school.
I'm kidding.
Sort of.
It was just a really hard week last week. And I crawled into the weekend, my heart bruised and my spirit a little bloodied. It wasn't pretty. I wept, and I doubted, and I was mad at my little Offender who, so help me, still makes my heart sing with his crooked smile. I lay in my bed and cried, and I begged God for something--anything--to redeem this ugly day we'd had.
I looked over at my laptop. My sweet friend Robin had sent me this passage:
1 To you I call, O LORD my Rock;
do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent,
I will be like those who have gone down to the pit.2 Hear my cry for mercy
as I call to you for help,
as I lift up my hands
toward your Most Holy Place.4 Repay them for their deeds
and for their evil work;
repay them for what their hands have done
and bring back upon them what they deserve.6 Praise be to the LORD,
for he has heard my cry for mercy.7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.9 Save your people and bless your inheritance;
be their shepherd and carry them forever.
"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped." These are just the words of peace I needed to hear.
Also? "Repay them for what their hands have done and bring back upon them what they deserve." If I'm not mistaken, I think that's a Biblical way to say, "I HOPE YOU HAVE A CHILD JUST LIKE YOU SOMEDAY."
Oh, yes. I'm defininitely feeling better now.
I'm thinking these thoughts, laughing through my tears, when The Offender comes into my room and hops up in my bed. He can't sleep. He tells me what's on his mind, and I listen. And at one point in our conversation I tell him, "you know, you just can't always trust girls. Believe me. I used to be one."
Used to be?
The joke hung in the air for just a minute until it washed over us both. We laughed together, and he leaned in to nudge me with his shoulder. I placed my hand on the top of his head. The rumbles of laughter silenced, and we sat there together, a cheeky pre-teen boy and his over-wrought mother. It was a good silence, the kind that patches up the holes we'd left in each other's hearts that day.
Thank God for the sweet mercy of taking things one day at a time.


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- Chasing California wildfires at night - beautiful, terrifying pictures.
- 10 commonplace journal ideas, at QuinnCreative. Do you put any of these in your journals? What else do you journal about?
- Pens! Paper! Pencils! reviews the Pilot Elite fountain pen, as well as Pilot Iroshizuku Fuyu-Gaki ink.
- The Clicky Post reviews the Pilot Prera fountain pen with orange accents. Mike may have a Pilot addiction.
- Pentulant reviews Noodler's Luxury Blue ink.
- From The Pen Cup reviews Montblanc's Daniel Defoe Palm Green ink... the more I see it, the more I want it. Not that I didn't already want it...
- What do you do with the notebook you started then end up not liking? At Rhodia Drive.
- Modern Stationer reviews the Platinum #3776 Sai fountain pen.
- Peninkcillin reviews Diamine's Prussian Blue ink.
- My Coffee Pot reviews the Edison Beaumont Pneumatic fountain pen.
- SBRE Brown shows off a nice flock of Pelikans.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Sunday Reads - September 28. 2014
fountain pens,
office supplies,
Pen Chalet,
Sunday Reads
1 comments:
- Christine Darling said...
Thanks for the mention! Always love your posts (and kitties!). xoxo - Pentulant
- September 29, 2014 at 1:40 PM
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text: Space | 14. April 2014 First week 'on Mars' We have already spent one week 'on Mars' and yet it feels like we arrived yesterday. Our 'landing', during the night of Friday 28 March, was quite tumultuous, with an arrival at sunset in pouring rain, strong winds and a temperature of about 10 degrees Celsius… like an actual Martian sandstorm. We unloaded all our luggage and proceeded to the last interviews with journalists from the University of Hawaii – in the rain. "Good luck and see you in four months!" said Kim Binsted as she exited the habitat. And our mission had begun! read more


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Tell Your FriendsDo not isolate yourself and bullies usually fear being punished, so tell your friends and authorities.
The first thing you have to do is remain calm.
It's not always easy to remain calm when your means of subsistence, that you and your family depend on, are threatened or when your career is threatened but this is what you need to do. When Psychological Harassment, Bullying, or Mobbing is used and you are threatened, you can become suspicious or paranoid and this is also sometimes the intention of the people using these psychological tactics. So you also need to control these thoughts and paranoia. It is also sometimes the intention to make you seem emotionally or psychologically unstable and you also need to control your emotions such as fear and anger.
The battle field is a psychological one and not a physical one.
Do not expect the people using these tactics, knowledge and technologies to attack you physically or verbally threaten you with physical harm such as a death threat, these are recognized crimes. They will use psychology or psychological manipulations to threaten you to induce stress and to try to destroy your self-esteem and self-confidence for example.
Do not let the behavior of others influence or change yours unless you believe it to be in a positive or constructive way.
If you believe people are conspiring against you, spreading rumors, trying to sabotage your work, or trying to upset you do not try to do the same and do not treat them in an aggressive, angry, rude, or threatening manner. Remain calm, composed, and respectful. You can discuss the issue and this usually clears up misunderstanding.
Do not participate in psychological harassment or criminal psychological harassment to cause someone to have a burnout, it is a crime.
Do not participate in psychological harassment or criminal psychological harassment to cause someone harm or to wear them out and cause a burnout, it is a crime. This is linked to letting others change your behavior in a negative way. Many participate under pressure from others such as management and others simply because they assume they can get away with a crime. Changing your behavior in a way to harm others is not constructive or positive for you psychologically and it can also make you vulnerable to prosecution, which is linked to fear and manipulation.
You need to read and learn as much as you can about Psychological Harassment, Bullying, and Mobbing.
By reading more about Psychological Harassment, Bullying, and Mobbing you will be better able to understand how you are being psychologically manipulated or harmed and what the tactics, knowledge and technologies being used against you are. You will be able to more easily identify them and explain or describe them to other people such as a Human Resource representative and also find out what laws or policies apply to you. This brings us to the next thing that you need to do.
You need to keep a journal of events that you believe where part of Psychological Harassment, Bullying, or Mobbing tactics.
You may be asked to undergo a psychological evaluation at one point and it is still common practice for psychiatrists to tell victims of Bullying that they have thoughts of persecution, paranoid delusion, stress and anxiety, burn out, feel depressed or are depressed due to a chemical imbalance and that by taking medication these ideas or thoughts will go away. This is why you need to keep a journal of events. You need to document what was said, what the actions were, how they were interpreted by you and how they made you feel, date, time, location, and who else was present. You can then use this journal to discuss these events with this medical professional and help them get a clearer understanding or make a better evaluation of your situation. It's also true that the skill level of the people using these kinds of tactics or strategies can be lower or higher than others and that the tactics may become harder to document because they are not as obvious or more subtle. The psychological construction of what is called "catch 22's" can also be used such as false accusations or degrading themes (see Psychological Manipulation). This tactic is an obvious one for people familiar with Psychological Harassment or Manipulation.
You need to protect your brain and body. The attacks are psychological but they do have a physical effect on the brain and body.
When you are going through the phenomenon of Psychological Harassment or Bullying it can be very stressful. Over a long period of time it can have serious consequences on your health. You need to take the proper actions, nutrition and exercise, to protect and reduce the effects on your brain and body. For example short duration interval training of 20 minutes, walking 2 minutes and running 30-60 seconds, can counter act the cortisol and stress in your body by releasing chemicals, oxygenating your brain, reducing anxiety, and returning your body to a relaxed state. High levels of stress and sleep deprivation can also lead to macromineral deficiencies and acid-base disorders. This is a type of weapon that you need to protect yourself from as well.
Take action when you believe there may be a problem and do not procrastinate.
If you believe your supervisor has started to use Psychological Harassment or Bullying tactics and is now overloading your workload for example, you need to address the situation by speaking to this supervisor and discuss why you believe you will not be able to achieve a deadline and how or when you may be able to accomplish the given task. Do not wait for the deadline to address the issue and then claim that it was an unrealistic demand. If someone engages in unwanted behavior you should let them know that it is unwanted or not appropriate as soon as possible.
Do not isolate yourself or let yourself be isolated.
Discuss the issue of Psychological Harassment, Bullying, Mobbing, and what is happening to you with friends, family members, other medical professionals or psychologists, legal representatives, your union, labor organizations, political representative and anyone else that you can think of that would be able to give you information, advice, or help. This is the last thing that the people using these kinds of technologies, tactics, and strategies would want you to do and by doing this you help promote awareness of this topic.
Expose the psychological harassment that you have been subjected too.
Victims should not isolate themselves and should expose the crimes that they have been subjected too. When you fail to expose this crime you contribute to it in different ways through the lack of information and knowledge that would help other victims. The information, knowledge, and awareness of this phenomenon is still relatively new and this lack of information, knowledge, and awareness plays a role and helps attack the credibility of victims that do expose the phenomenon. Different organizations such as the medical community and different members of the medical community still play a role in discrediting victims, instead of helping them.
Observe and analyze your behavior.
How have you been affected, how has your behavior changed, why did your behavior change, is this change positive, constructive, or a change that you want , was this change the intention of the psychological manipulation, how will you correct, change, or prevent this behavior.
Think on paper
Most people can better organize their thoughts and ideas on paper.
Use technology to record events or cases of psychological harassment or bullying.
With the advances in technology you can use technology to record crime scenes or any other important events and this also applies to case of psychological harassment or bullying. The new iPhones or smart phones have the built-in capabilities to record events with video or without video.
Site Content


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[Rudy Heeman] has been working in his garage on what we may consider a new class of vehicle. It's a hovercraft — but it also has wings.
That's right, you drive it on ground, water, and you can even take flight with it! However, it's far from a new idea. After doing some digging it appears the first type of this vehicle was actually tested back in 1996 by Universal Hovercraft — a quick peruse of their site reveals you can even buy your own kits to make one! Regardless of where it came from, or who made one first, it's a brilliantly fun concept, and would be a blast to fly. Oh and you don't even need a pilot's license, it's considered a boat and follows the same rules and regulations for boating.
Stick around after the break to see one in action! Now all we need to do is figure out how to combine one of these with a Delorean Hovercraft!


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Would you take out a loan that has an annual percentage rate of 391 percent? Yes, I know that sounds absolutely crazy, but millions of Americans do it every single year. The typical payday loan requires borrowers to pay about 15 dollars for every $100 that they borrow for two weeks. That comes out to a yearly rate of about 391 percent. And the payday loan companies know exactly who to target. They have set up thousands of shops in the poorest communities all over the nation over the last several decades. Each year, approximately 12 million Americans take out payday loans and they pay approximately 7.4 billion dollars in interest and fees on those loans. Sadly, once you get hooked on payday loans they are very hard to stop. In fact, one study found that only 13 percent of payday borrowers get two loans or less per year. All other borrowers take out more loans than that. In fact, more than a third of all payday borrowers take out between 11 and 19 loans during the course of a single year. And as was mentioned earlier, the interest rates on these loans are beyond exorbitant. Payday loans are estimated to be about 20 times more expensive than bank loans, with annual interest rates that are sometimes as high as 500 percent. The payday loan companies circle the poor like vultures, because they know that the poor are the only ones desperate enough to agree to such terms. This is why we need to shut them down. The payday loan companies are making billions preying on the misery of the poor and it needs to be stopped, and that's why if you need a fast loan approval is better to go online for this.
And it just isn't small, disreputable banks that are involved in these practices. The truth is that some of the largest banks in America are now making payday loans…
Some, including U.S. Bank, Fifth Third Bank and Wells Fargo, offer payday loans under names such as Ready Advance, Fast Loan and Early Access, according to the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). They can carry interest rates averaging between 225 and 300 percent, CRL said.
Others major banks not making such loans directly, but instead they are investing millions of dollars in the companies that do make the loans. Bank of New York Mellon Corp., JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are just some of the major banks that have invested large amounts of money in the payday loan industry.
These financial institutions are making billions of dollars by exploiting the people in our society that are the most vulnerable. As I showed the other day, the bottom 90 percent of America is systematically getting poorer, and many Americans in desperate financial situations have found the easy cash provided by the payday loan companies to be irresistible. The following are some statistics about payday loans from a recent Pew Research study...
Fifty-eight percent of payday loan borrowers have trouble meeting monthly expenses at least half the time. These borrowers are dealing with persistent cash shortfalls rather than temporary emergencies.
Only 14 percent of borrowers say they can afford to repay an average payday loan out of their monthly budgets.
Seventy-eight percent of borrowers rely on information from lenders-who sell these loans as a safe, two-week product-when choosing to borrow money. This reliance reinforces the perception that payday loans are unlike other forms of credit because they will not create ongoing debt. Yet the stated price tag for a two-week, $375 loan bears little resemblance to the actual $520 cost over the five months of debt that the average user experiences.
While payday loans are often presented as an alternative to overdrafting on a checking account, a majority of borrowers end up paying fees for both.
Some borrowers ultimately turn to the same options they could have used instead of payday loans to finally pay off the loans. Forty-one percent need an outside cash infusion to eliminate payday loan debt– including getting help from friends or family, selling or pawning personal possessions, taking out another type of loan, or using a tax refund.
By almost a three-to-one margin, borrowers favor more regulation of payday loans. A majority of borrowers say the loans both take advantage of them and that they provide relief. Despite feeling conflicted about their experiences, borrowers want to change how payday loans work.
But those statistics don't really convey the real world consequences that these predatory loans have. Many Americans have lost everything that they had after they turned to payday loans. In fact, it is estimated that at least 50,000 Americans a year go bankrupt due to payday loans.
A recent NBC News article profiled Raymond Chaney, a 66-year-old military veteran that had his life totally destroyed by these predators…
For Raymond Chaney, taking out a payday loan was like hiring a taxi to drive across the country. He ended up broke – and stranded.
The 66-year-old veteran from Boise lives off of Social Security benefits, but borrowed from an Internet payday lender last November after his car broke down and didn't have the $400 for repairs. When the 14-dayloan came due, he couldn't pay, so he renewed it several times.
Within months, the cash flow nightmare spun out of control. Chaney ended up taking out multiple loans from multiple sites, trying to to stave off bank overdraft fees and pay his rent. By February, payday lenders – who had direct access to his checking account as part of the loan terms – took every cent of his Social Security payment, and he was kicked out of his apartment. He had borrowed nearly $3,000 and owed $12,000.
"I'm not dumb, but I did a dumb thing," said Chaney, who is now homeless, living in a rescue mission in Boise.
Is there anyone out there that still wants to argue that we should not shut these predators down?
Sadly, many Americans in poor communities have very few alternatives to the payday loan companies. In recent years, the large banking chains have been systematically closing down branches in poor neighborhoods while expanding in wealthy neighborhoods at the same time. Since the Federal Reserve is paying banks not to lend money, it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to make high-risk loans to poor Americans who may not be able to pay them back. And recent regulations passed by Congress have made it not very profitable to offer checking accounts to poor people. In many poor communities all over the country, it has now gotten to the point where it is becoming extremely difficult to find a bank branch anywhere.
So payday loan companies have been more than happy to fill the void.
But don't look down on those that have taken out payday loans. The truth is that almost all of us have willingly allowed ourselves to become enslaved to the system at one point or another.
For example, in a previous article entitled "Money Is A Form Of Social Control And Most Americans Are Debt Slaves", I pointed out the utter foolishness of constantly carrying a balance on a credit card. In that article, I included a great explanation from a former Goldman Sachs banker about how incredibly crippling credit card debt can be…
On the debt side of things, how much does your credit card company earn if you carry just an average of a $5,000 credit card balance, paying, say, 22% annual interest rate (compounding monthly) for the next 10 years?
In your mind you owe a balance of only $5,000, which is not a huge amount, especially for someone gainfully employed. After all, $5,000 is just a quick Disney trip, or a moderately priced ski-trip, or that week in Hawaii. You think to yourself, "how bad could it be?"
The answer, including the cost of monthly compounding, is $44,235, or about 9 times what it appears to cost you at face value.
This is why one of the top things that I recommend for getting prepared for the economic crisis that is coming is to get out of debt.
You do not want to be enslaved to financial predators when everything starts falling apart all around you.
So do any of you have any payday loan or credit card horror stories to share? Please feel free to share what you have to say by posting a comment below…


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F-1 Visa Process
This site provides information on the U.S. student visa process if you are outside of the United States and have not yet obtained your student visa or will soon be applying for one. If you have already obtained your F-1 visa to come to Walla Walla Community College, congratulations! We look forward to seeing you here for orientation.
If you are outside the United States and have not yet applied for your student visa, please plan to do so as soon as possible. Many of the US embassies and consulates worldwide, have long waiting lists for individuals needing visas of all kinds. It is important for you to have your visa in time to arrive for orientation at the start of the quarter.
We strongly suggest that you visit the EducationUSA office nearest you for information and help on how to obtain an F-1 Visa in your country. To find the EducationUSA center nearest you please follow this link: educationusa.state.gov/
What to Bring With You to the Visa Interview
Be sure to bring the following with you to the visa appointment:
- Passport
- required photo(s)
- visa fee or proof of visa fee payment
- U.S. non-immigrant visa application form
- Proof of SEVIS fee payment (link to our SEVIS fee Requirement page)
- Walla Walla Community College admission letter
- Walla Walla Community College SEVIS I-20.
- academic records (from high school and college-if applicable)
- proof of financial support
- any other documents required by the embassy or consulate
Remember that if you plan to attend Walla Walla Community College, you must present the visa officer with a SEVIS I-20 issued by Walla Walla Community College.
Contact Office of International Programs
500 Tausick Way
Walla Walla, WA 99362
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01.509.527.4283
Fax: 01.509.527.3661
Strategies for the visa appointment
The following are potential areas that you may be questioned about when interviewed by the consulate representative:
- You must be definite and clear about your educational plans. You should be able to explain precisely what you wish to study and why you chose Walla Walla Community College for your education. If your intent is to transfer, emphasize that your goal is to get a Bachelor's degree and that Walla Walla Community College has excellent transfer rates to universities across the US. You should have some idea what school you want to transfer to. Be especially prepared to explain the reasons for studying in the United States rather than your country.
- Demonstrate convincing reasons for consular officials to believe that you intend to return home after studies in the United States. Emphasize ties to your home country such as employment, family obligations, property or investments that you own or will inherit, and clear explanations of how you plan to use your education to help your country or pursue a career when you return home.
- Be prepared to prove financial ability to pay for your education and living expenses. Since students may not plan to work to support themselves, you must show the consular officer that you have the annual amount in United States dollars listed on your I-20 form.
- You must have financial evidence in the form of bank statements, affidavits of support, scholarship award letters, etc.
Although we know that many students are granted their visas to study in the United States a certain number of students may have their visa applications denied. The most common reasons for visa denial is the failure to prove sufficient ties to your home country, failure to provide sufficient evidence of financial support, and failure to convince the consulate representative that Walla Walla Community College is the best choice for you. The visa officer must verbally inform you of the reason for the visa denial. If your visa is denied, please send an e-mail message to [email protected] and provide the date and location of your visa interview, and details regarding the reason given by the visa officer for the denial.
Much more common than a visa denial is a visa delay. This is why it is so important to apply for your visa early! Here are some of the most common reasons for visa delays:
*closings or reduced hours at U.S. visa issuing posts abroad due to security concerns (for example, the US Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Jakarta, Indonesia were closed due to credible terrorist threats).
* closings or reduced hours at U.S. visa issuing posts abroad due to political instability in the host country.
* student's record does not appear in the SEVIS system at the U.S. embassy or consulate, even though the student presents a SEVIS I-20.
If you are told that your record does not appear in the visa officer's SEVIS system, immediately contact the International Programs Office at [email protected] and provide the date and location of your visa interview. We will contact the appropriate authority to have your SEVIS record re-submitted directly to the location where you have applied for your visa.
* the need for a security clearance prior to visa issuance if the visa applicant is determined to be pursuing a "sensitive area of study" as indicated on the State Department's Technology Alert List used by the consulate.
* the need for a security clearance prior to visa issuance if the visa applicant is male, between the age of 16-46 and a citizen of or born in one of the "special registration" countries (Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen).
* the need for a security clearance for any non-immigrant visa applicant male or female, age 16 or older who is a national of or permanently residing in Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan or Syria. These individuals will not be issued visas unless the applicant can show evidence that he or she is not a threat to U.S. national security.
* the new U.S. Department of State requires that all applicants for non-immigrant visas be interviewed. This new policy is less of a problem for visa posts in Asia and Africa that have generally interviewed all visa applicants, but could be a very big problem for U.S. visa posts in Europe and South America, which have traditionally not interviewed all visa applicants.
To mitigate the problems of visa delays due to security clearance requirements, the State Department has announced that it will make a maximum effort to try to approve student (F-1) visas prior to the start date on a student's I-20, and urges students to apply for their visas at the earliest possible date to avoid such problems.
Similar to a visa denial, the visa officer must verbally inform you of the reason for the visa delay. If your visa is delayed, please send an e-mail message to [email protected] and provide the date and location of your visa interview, and details regarding the reason given by the visa officer for the delay. Please note that if your visa is delayed so that you will not be able to enter the US by the first day of class you will be required to defer your attendance at Walla Walla Community College to the next quarter.
For more information regarding student visas and more please visit the U.S. State Department website.
The International Programs office wishes all new international students success with their visa applications! Please let us know if you encounter any difficulties or delays. We hope that this information is helpful to you, and we look forward to welcoming you to Walla Walla Community College!


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How to Choose the Right Digital Marketing Strategy
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is not optional in today's world. Virtually every business that serves consumers has a digital marketing presence. However, knowing that you need digital marketing is different than knowing how to do it. There is no such thing as a digital marketing strategy that works for every brand. Although businesses may all be striving to accomplish the same broad goals with their digital marketing strategies, the road to accomplishing these is unique for different brands, depending on a business' identity, customer base, and goals. Does the idea of choosing a digital marketing strategy have your head spinning? Here's how to choose the right approach for your business' specific needs.
Get Clear About Your Market and Your Goals
Every marketing campaign needs to be directed at a specific audience and have clearly defined goals. Taking the time to identify these factors will help you make the rest of the decisions about your strategy. It will also help you track the results of your efforts and determine what works well and what isn't working for your brand.
A great way to clarify your market is to develop customer personas. Think about the demographics of the customers who currently respond to your brand and the ones you think you would like to target. Create customer personas from that information. You will likely need multiple personas to capture your whole market.
Once you have identified the demographic information of the customers that you will be targeting, start thinking about each persona a little deeper. For example, think about what motivates them to engage with your brand, which of your products and services appeal to them, and what other companies, personalities, and products are likely to appeal to them. The more detail you can put into each persona, the better, since it will help you determine the best ways to target each group with your digital strategy.
With a clear understanding about your market, turn your attention to determining the goals of your digital marketing strategy. Some common goals for digital marketing strategies include:
- Increasing traffic to your website
- Creating awareness of your brand
- Generating leads for your business
- Converting leads to sales
- Getting more subscribers to a mailing list
- Promoting a new good or service
- Increasing followers on social media profiles
You will notice that some of these goals are easier to track than others. For example, you can easily monitor the impacts of your marketing efforts on site traffic but measuring brand awareness is a little more challenging. It is OK to have a mix of goals that are easy to track and those that are somewhat less tangible. After all, an increase in brand awareness will have the effect of a larger customer base, so while you may not be able to pinpoint the driver, you will still reap the rewards.
Understand the Options
There are multiple channels you can use to achieve your digital marketing goals. Most digital marketing strategies will include the use of multiple channels. Understanding the channels and how they can best be used is critical to building an effective strategy. Here is a look at the most common digital marketing channels:
- Display advertising. This refers to advertising that is hosted on third party sites, such as a banner ads or pop-up ads on websites. This can be a helpful way of targeting specific personas in your market, since your can pay for the advertising to appear on sites that they are likely to target.
- Search engine optimization. If you want your website to rank highly when potential customers search for keywords that are relevant to your brand, then you need to perform search engine optimization, or SEO. There are several parts to executing an SEO plan effectively, including identifying keywords and building content around them and using high-quality internal and external links.
- Pay-Per-Click. Pay-per-click, or PPC, is another way to get to the top of the search results when customers search for keywords. The difference here is that SEO strategies create organic ranking, while PPC involves paying for placement. When you outbid competitors for a keyword, your website will appear in the advertised results that appear above the organic results on search engine pages.
- Email marketing. As the name suggests, email marketing involves collecting email addresses from existing and potential customers and then sending them emails to market your products and services. The more targeted you can get with your email marketing campaigns, the better.
- Social media marketing. This involves using social media profiles to engage with customers. You can use social medial platforms to drive traffic to your website, share advertising, or increase your brand awareness. Social media also gives you a chance to speak directly to your customers and develop an identity for your brand that will increase loyalty in your target markets.
- Conversion rate optimization. CRO—customization rate optimization—involves strategies to convert visitors to your site into sales or leads. For example, if your goal is to get more people to sign up for your mailing list, CRO will help get visitors to your website to join.
Work with a Specialist
Often, businesses think that digital marketing is something that they can do in-house as an extra duty on someone's plate. The reality is that it takes a great deal of attention and specialized knowledge. By hiring a digital marketing company that is experienced in helping brands build and execute strategies that target their customers efficiently, you will reap a better return on investment without stretching your staff too thin.
Salem Surround helps both local and national brands fill gaps in their digital marketing strategies with customized solutions to help them reach the right audience. We don't help you just target your audience, but rather we surround them online, so that your name is there on the sites and platforms they use. Contact us today to talk about your goals for online marketing and find out how we can help with digital presence solutions.


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I'm using a Dutch version of WinXP, so some of those terms may not be the actual English ones
1. Windows Media Player.
If you give Windows Media Player access to the net, you're giving up your anonymity. You don't like that? Disable it!
How? Extra --> Options --> Player (first tab) --> Unselect 'Permit Internet-sites to assign an ID to your player'.
2. Uninstall.
You don't like a feature (Messenger,...), but don't know how to remove it?
Here's how:
In C:\Windows\Inf, there's a file called 'sysoc.inf'.
Open it with notepad (or another text-editor). It should look a little something like this:
The 'hide' option prevents you from removing the application (meaning it won't show in your Configuration --> Software screen). Use your text-editors search&replace-function to replace every hide with a ,Code:[Version] Signature = "$Windows NT$" DriverVer=07/01/2001,5.1.2600.0 [Components] NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4 WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7 Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7 ...
Safe the file, go back to your Configuration --> Software-screen, and remove whatever application you want.
3. Changing a service's priority.
You want to give your Virusscanner or another application Top priority? --> Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del (for those of you who don't want to use both hands: Ctrl-Shift-Esc). Your taskmanager will pop up. Select the second tab (processes), and right-click the process you want to change.
4. Faster Start-menu.
Open regedit. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \Desktop. Open the key MenuShow Delay. Standard value is 400. Lower this to make your Start-menu faster.


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At the heart of this horological marvel lies the cutting-edge automatic mechanical movement, meticulously crafted by Franck Muller's skilled artisans. Known for their expertise in creating intricate and high-performance movements, Franck Muller has once again pushed the boundaries of watchmaking with this masterpiece. The movement not only ensures impeccable timekeeping accuracy but also reflects the brand's commitment to excellence in every aspect of watchmaking.
The double-sided calfskin strap adds a touch of luxury and sophistication to the timepiece. Carefully selected for its supple texture and durability, the calfskin strap enhances the overall comfort of wearing the watch. The original needle buckle, crafted with precision, not only secures the watch firmly to the wrist but also adds a distinctive touch to the design.
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Volatile energy costs and increased pressure from consumers to be more socially responsible are important business drivers for manufacturers in the home and personal care (HPC) industries. But identifying the potential savings of reducing utilities consumption is not a trivial task. Manufacturing processes are interlinked, and plant-floor layouts have grown larger and more complex over the years to meet changing market demands. As a result, the realities of today's manufacturing landscape present a multifaceted challenge for manufacturers to identify, prioritize and execute the changes necessary to optimize energy usage.
By conducting an energy and utilities audit that takes a holistic view of manufacturing processes, HPC manufacturers can more easily identify energy losses in order to prioritize savings potential. As a result, cost and consumption of all utilities reductions can be realized and plant performance optimized. In fact, by teaming utilities specialists—such as plant and facility operations directors with domain professionals, such as the lead controls engineer and an internal sustainability champion—you can gain a comprehensive view of the production process from generation to consumption. This helps make sure that production is completed under optimum conditions at the lowest cost possible and that no utilities are wasted in the process.
Conducting an Audit of Utilities Used Production
When beginning the audit process, you'll want to work with a team of specialists to identify and develop the business goals for your energy management strategy. These goals should be easily quantifiable, such as an overall percent reduction in energy usage or a specific percent improvement in the facility's energy spend.
Some of these savings can be achieved with simple changes to equipment, usage patterns or technology updates. Longer term changes may involve process overhauls, or perhaps an entire facility redesign. However, all energy audit programs should incorporate the establishment of an energy awareness culture across all areas of the plant. The most successful energy management programs are those that are continuous. Regular audits are an excellent method for keeping employees motivated to continue effective savings programs. Indeed, determining the scope and level of commitment to more effective energy management upfront will focus efforts on the areas with the most opportunity for substantial positive returns.
The next step of an audit process should include an analysis of overall consumption to identify areas of opportunity. As part of this analysis, a certified energy manager (CEM), who has successfully completed their CEM certification exams administered by the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), should complete an in-depth analysis of the facility's current energy usage. Using data collected on-site from the in-house team and a comprehensive review of all utility bills for the past two years, the CEM can generate an analysis output document that provides a broad, high-level overview of the company's current utilities usage.
While the CEM can use general benchmark goals (see Table 1) to help develop the final analysis, his or her experience is crucial in taking into account local conditions—such as the size of the plant, the degree of automation, the impact of seasonal differences, and even special terms and conditions in utilities contracts. Each of these variables can significantly impact a manufacturer's specific energy savings potential.
The final analysis, together with your team's knowledge and experience, will form the basis for a collaborative investigation of the energy consumption within individual areas of the plant.
Collectively Synchronizing Generation Against Demand
Once your critical objectives are paired with the areas of opportunity, a more in-depth examination of the processes can start. A CEM will work with you to complete a walking tour of the facility. On the generation side, he or she will evaluate the efficiency of boilers, chilled water systems and air compressors, analyze the water/wastewater streams and systems, and explore the possibility of installing alternative systems, such as coupled heat and power (CHP) plants or solar panels.
On the consumption side, application and domain professionals can compare the current processes in place against the latest technologies available in the market to identify potential savings by investing in newer technologies. The deployment of new processes can result in reduced energy costs as well as in increased capacity, shortened cycle times or reduced product losses.
Although it is important that the individual processes are examined for their energy consumption, it is equally important that optimization of the individual processes is not completed in isolation. The CEM can help your in-house team develop an energy management plan that allows for the appropriate synchronization of processes to provide multiple benefits from one action. For example, heat exchange from cooling down a product in one process can deliver the heat needed for processes at another stage of production. Scheduling each of these steps in the manufacturing process, with respect to the energy they consume and the energy available through the utilities systems, can reduce spikes in electricity consumption and avoid surcharges on energy prices.
Identifying the Savings Opportunities
Each of the opportunities identified in an energy audit can generally be classified as one of three changes to the manufacturing process:
- Behavioral changes: Behavioral changes are simple, low- or no-cost solutions that can significantly impact the bottom line, such as changes in the time of day certain equipment is used, or timing power-up sequencing for off-peak hours. Payback for behavioral changes is generally immediate and the savings drops straight to the bottom line.
- Programming changes: Programming changes are relatively low-cost changes to the facility's energy-consuming assets that can provide a quicker payback. On the plant floor, these changes can take the form of improving controls or upgrading older equipment for more effective use of energy resources. Payback for programming changes is generally realized in less than one year.
- Capital investments: Capital investments can include boilers with advanced process control that helps optimize fuel usage; installing solar panels or other alternative energy systems to power manufacturing machinery; and building an entirely new, more sustainable plant. While these are the most expensive options—payback can stretch beyond one year—the long-term ROI also can be the most rewarding.
Examples from an audit conducted for a large batch manufacturer can illustrate the different categories and typical actions pertaining to each. As part of audit process, Rockwell Automation recommended behavioral changes as simple as instituting an energy consumption awareness program with their workforce. The analysis recommended setting easily identifiable metrics for success, including a 1% reduction in overall energy consumption. It was estimated that these small improvements—ranging from just 1-5% improvements, in most cases—could help the company save significantly on energy costs year over year.
The audit also identified potential savings resulting from shifting time-of-day operation for equipment to off-peak hours to reduce peak demand charges. By charging the batteries used to power their forklifts at night instead of in the middle of the day, the company could realize $35,000 in demand charge savings annually.
The programming changes identified for this same batch manufacturer included several updates to their compressed air system, which was comprised of two 750 standard cubic feet per minute, 150-horsepower air compressors. These compressors ran 24/7 at full power—even when the plant was in a down condition on the weekends or during holidays.
Recommended programming changes to this system included reducing line pressure to the minimum psi required by non-operating devices when the plant was in a down condition, and powering those devices that must stay on during weekends and holidays with smaller, dedicated compressors. The audit analysis also recommended reducing the line pressure during operational periods to the minimum level necessary to complete the manufacturing process. All told, these programming changes had the potential to save the manufacturer almost $50,000 annually.
As part of the project, the CEM also made a capital investment recommendation pertaining to the compressed air system. The analysis showed that by installing an air buffer tank or additional storage tanks, the manufacturer could further reduce peak loads and therefore reduce overall load and cycling of the compressors.
Other capital investment recommendations ranged from investing in variable frequency drives for the air handlers in the plant's HVAC system, to upgrading the boiler controls for burner management, combustion control and heat recovery alternatives. However, because these projects potentially require greater capital investment, they must be weighed against other business goals and longer-term production requirements.
Overall, the audit process identified over $240,000 in potential savings for the manufacturer. In tough economic times, those bottom-line savings can mean stability and risk mitigation. As the economy improves, the optimized production processes can mean improved margins and a significant competitive advantage.
Bottom Line: Monitor
In addition to the behavioral, programming and capital investment changes that a holistic utilities audit will bring to light, the monitoring of energy usage is a crucial component to a successful ongoing energy management program. Each individual department in the plant is often not aware of its consumption on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis. This is a crucial aspect, because you cannot control what you cannot measure and you cannot optimize what you cannot control. By simply metering the consumption of utilities, small opportunities for improvement can be identified that can provide a significant impact on energy usage, resulting in immediate financial savings.
Stephen Stokes from AMR Research points out in his article titled "Sustainability, Green, and the Greenback: Where's the Money in a Sustainability Management Ecosystem?" that "targets and tracking are crucial. Leading organizations set targets and regularly report their successes in attaining those goals."
An effective monitoring system should provide the following benefits:
- Automatic reporting of Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
- Statistical analysis capability
- Easier configuration of user reports
- Scalable
- Presentation of real-time performance data in graphical form
Ability to communicate with existing site SCADA or other control systems Relevant performance data should be presented to the people who are most likely to immediately respond to out-of-specification performance (utility or process operations staff)
The information generated from monitoring software can be trended and correlated to exogenous factors (such as local temperature and humidity) and can provide the highest level of utilities management available. Systems that track usage for the entire enterprise allow employees at all levels of the organization to have a common understanding of energy use. This can help focus efforts on improvement potential and drive consistent organizational behavior in achieving sustainable production goals.
Manufacturers in the HPC industry are facing increased demand from consumers to produce their products in a sustainable manner. Using a system-wide approach to examining energy consumption through the use of in-house experience and outside energy consultants can provide the best overall recommendations for building a successful energy management strategy. By implementing this strategy and engaging the entire workforce in efforts to waste less and save more, you can improve their bottom line and increase your brand equity, all while better serving the community and environment.


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Wasinger Daming, LC
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1401 S. Brentwood Boulevard St. Louis, MO 63144 Phone: (314) 961-0400
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In the process of having six children, my Mother was encouraged by her doctor to wear a man made girdle which she has done most of her life. The girdle would flatten the stomach and tighten the behind by constriction of the garment. It gave support to the lower back and pelvic floor muscles. Last, but not least, it held up your nylon stockings if it had the right snaps and attachments. The girdle treated the symptoms, but did not solve the problem.
God created us with a "natural girdle" made up of what we refer to as "core muscles." Often times when people hear core muscles they immediately assume abdominal muscles. Abdominals often get credit for protecting the back and being the foundation of strength, but in reality they are only a small part of what makes up the core. Without being too technical, in general the muscles of the core run the length of the trunk and torso. These muscles include the abs, the obliques (located on sides and front of abs), your lower back muscles, the erector spinae, (group of three muscles which run along your neck to the lower back), and your glutes which is located in the back of the hip and upper thigh leg.
I want to give you enough description of these muscles so you can understand how they form a natural girdle. The deepest abdominal muscle, the transverse abdominis, acts like a weight belt, wrapping around your spine for protection and stability. These are the muscles across the belly. The obliques, as stated are the muscles on the side and front of the abdomen, around the waist. You have the erector spinae running vertically up the back, and the latissimus dorsi going horizontally across. As we learn the anatomy we were created with and how to use it, we will find God had a much better plan than putting on superficial supports and not using our muscles.
The goal of the core is to stabilize and maintain a solid foundation and transfer energy from the center of the body out to the limbs. When we refer to "core strength," it refers to the muscles of your abs and back and their ability to support your spine and keep your body stable and balanced. If our "natural girdle" is stretched out, weak, and unable to do what it was created to, we encounter all kinds of repercussions. One of the most common repercussions is back pain. Back pain is common because so many muscles have to contract and relax in order to allow you to stand and move. Tendons attach muscles to bones, ligaments hold your vertebrae together, and muscles protect your spine and hold your body in place. If all of these are strong and healthy, you are good to go. But, if you have weak muscles, poor posture will result, and the back will be one of the first places to feel the strain.
We have to exercise these muscles to strengthen them. I could give you a long list of exercises, but I recommend doing your own research. Education is the best motivator. Start with simply focusing on strengthening lower back muscles, your glutes, abs, and obliques. Water exercise is the most effective exercise I have found for overall core strength. The reason being your core muscles are constantly engaged the whole time you are in the water. The buoyancy, inertia, (movement of water) and the resistance of the water forces you to constantly use the core for stability and balance.
Learn good posture. Go back to the basics. Stand tall, chest up, shoulders down and back. Use your "natural girdle" to slightly hold in your abs. A slight contraction by keeping the navel pulled toward the spine will help keep those muscles strong, not to mention looking like you have just lost five pounds!
When you are sitting, place your feet flat on the floor, with your hips, knees, and ankles creating a ninety degree angle. If you are short, don't let your feet dangle. Use a foot rest. Sit deep–there should be no gap between your tush and the lower back of the chair. Keep hips under shoulders and shoulders down and back. Always keep your chin in line with your chest—don't jut it forward.
Everything can't be said in an article, but I hope this bit of information will make you aware of the importance of learning how to use the "natural girdle" God created us with. I put a great deal of emphasis on posture when teaching the water classes. Good posture enables you to keep your "girdle" strong because of constant engagement of your muscles. If your "natural girdle" is weak and worn, let's get busy doing a make-over and focus on prevention rather than cure. Again, we can solve a lot of the healthcare crisis by taking responsibility for our own health.